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Most states likely to spurn gay-marriage bandwagon

As hundreds of gay couples became newlyweds in New York over the weekend, their well-wishers included many far-flung gays aware that their own states may never willingly allow same-sex marriage.

In all, 30 states have adopted constitutional amendments aimed at limiting marriage to one-man, one-woman unions.

In a few of them — California and Oregon, for example — activists hold out hope of repealing the bans. That outcome seems improbable, though, in many heartland and Southern states, and gay-rights leaders there are eying more modest short-term goals.

They'll soon get a boost from a leading national gay-rights group, the Human Rights Campaign. It plans to launch a bus tour, starting Aug. 12 in Utah and ending Oct. 30 in Florida, which will travel through 11 states that ban gay marriage.

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